I can see why you'd be frustrated. However, I've used PCs since their inception and never had such problems with any of my machines -- I only get rid of them when it's more cost-effective to buy new than upgrade. I have used Macs at work (newspaper) from the oldest to the newest. They're good machines, too, but they've never given anything but trouble -- touchy as hell. I finally stopped counting how many times I have to reboot while working. They're nice -- but if I want a workhorse, I'll get a PC and never look back.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Cameron Hood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, August 02, 2002 12:59 PM Subject: Re: OT: Windoze 2000 features: End of Rant > I'm sorry to get so enraged. When I think of the hundreds and hundreds of > hours I spent in Windoze trying to fix stupid errors that should not have > happened and that I now know were only the result of bad software, I have a > tendency to get furious. > > I recall when I first got my new Windoze 95 Pentium 166 machine back in > 1995. Upon having my first (of thousands of) 'fatal error(s)' after > innocently starting the machine up (it had been working fine hours earlier), > I got onto the Microsoft helpline (after a few hours on hold) and the > conversation went something like this: > > "My computer just crashed, and I have a blue screen that says 'fatal error > at winsoc 386.95200115993.231.2223 stack dump > 0000100011110010111001101000000010100100010100101001 > 1100001000111100101110000001101001010010001010010100 > 1111 00001000111100101110011010010100100010100101001 > 0011001000111100101000110011010010100100010100101001 > 0000100011100000100101110011010010100100010100101001 > 0011111001000111100101110011010010100100010100101001 > 0000100110111100000101110011010010100100010100101001 > 0000101111100111100101110011010010100100010100101001. > What should I do?" > > "You must reboot from your startup CD" > > "But I'll Lose everything. Isn't there anything else I can do" > > "No." > > "I have hundreds of hours of work on this machine. Is there any way of > retrieving it?" > > "No." > > "Where can I get a book listing the error messages in Windoze 95?" > > "A book?" > > "Yeah, you know, a book explaining what the error messages mean and how to > fix them." > > "There is no book." > > "Well how do you fix your machines?" > > "You must reinstall Windoze 95 from your startup CD." > > "Surely to God there must be a listing somewhere of all the possible error > messages and what to do to fix them. What does winsoc 386.95200.... mean" > > "We can't tell you that." > > "Why not?" > > It's SOURCE CODE! You must reboot your machine from the startup CD." > > And so on. Dozens and dozens of times. Most of the time with absolutely no > warning. And everytime I was led to believe that I had done something wrong, > and that I was somehow an idiot for not knowing what 'illegal function at > vdx.586.0010245673472.23459723592365.001001001001111101001'.... means. > > I remember then the absolute NIGHTMARE upgrade to Windoze 98 that cost me > hundreds and hundreds of hours of lost productivity and frustration. I > remember simply trying to add a new video card to that pile of crap, and the > hundreds of hours searching for little driver bits here and there, crossing > and uncrossing jumpers, uninstalling this and disabling that and piddling > around with stupid shit for STUFF THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE COMPATIBLE! PLUG > AND PLAY! IT SAID SO RIGHT ON THE BOX! AND SO DID THE MICROCRAP WEBSITE! > > I don't buy the argument about many platforms. It is all predominantly the > same chip. The general unsuspecting public has been sold a pile of crap. If > we had bought a refrigerator with this kind of reliability, the company > would have been out of business years ago. How about a car that just dies > without warning five or six times a week, and they won't tell you how to fix > it, just to reinstall an engine (at your expense). There would be rioting in > the streets. But somehow, Gates and his band of bandits have got away with > this by making us feel stupid and inept. And people continue to buy it. It > is uncanny to me. > > The little bit extra you pay for a Mac will be more than made up for in lost > production time, frustration, aggravation, etc. Any little problem that > crops up is dealt with on the Macfixit website, or Apple comes out with a > fix before I even know there is a problem. I have had two crashes on this > machine in a year and a half. Both were early on before I knew what i was > doing, and neither time did I lose any data. On a Mac, you can reinstall the > operating system 'in place' without losing any data. You have a choice of > 'in place', reinstall 'in place' and move everything else to a separate > file, or to wipe the hard drives clean and totally restart. Makes perfect > sense to me. Mac has long been the innovator: look at where the Palm Pilot > came from (remember the Mac 'Lisa', and the 'Newton'?). > > And incidentally, Mr. McRae, Mac was given permission to use the graphic > interface from Xerox; Gates, however, stole it from Mac, and pretended it > was some great innovation of his making and got us all to believe it! I was > fooled, too. And don't forget there were lawsuits, many of them, and > continues to be lawsuits, as you know. Unfortunately, Mr. Gates now has so > much money he can out manoevre even the US Government. > > It is a sad commentary on the state of our society that someone can get so > rich on the basis of such an awful product that was initially stolen. > Windoze and its descendants are the product of deceipt and thievery, and the > company that makes it is driven only by out and out greed. The American > Dream at its absolute worst. > > End of rant. > > > Cameron Hood > > PS: The Digibino is great! I can forsee many many thousands of bootleg > photos from concerts, plays, festivals, etc., as people will be bringing > them in as they just look like binoculars! It's like something Bill Gates > himself would build, and then innocently state "They're for bird watching!" > - > This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, > go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to > visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org . - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
